Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1887-03-02
A sfUCH-USED PRONOUN.
little II" as an Over-Worked Word.

little II" as an Overlooked Word.
A recent Lumter of the London
! Queen contains an article on ''The
First Person Singular" The writer
asserts, and Without doubt the asser-
zion is well grounded, that the letter
-" is the boundary Of the whole
world of sensation, and the mirror
wherein are reflected all outside phe-
GOmena. We live and think and
understand by its realization, and
through its power of absorption we
get a glimpse of the 81" of others.
It's the Alpha and Omega of all specu-
lation-the sole beacon of light In the
midst Of universal darkness. In it all
nature is focused and all life repre-
sented. "What the II does
not know has 20 existence for man."
what the eye does not see the heart
does not crave" and "What the II
does not know the mind cannot ac-
cept," are truisms. That which some
organisms feel and believe are nOn.ex
istent for others. A person who has
always been blind can have no percep-
tien of color. a deaf person no idea of
harmony. This Is the metaphysical
aspect of "T." The 81" of everyday
life is in some persons the most objec-
tionable sign-post ever set up In the
highway OF life. 1t meets one at every
turn and seems to obstruct the way to
every other domain. What / think
and what do-where l have been and
what l have seen, is the string on
which is sounded the everlasting mono
chord of egotism; and it never occurs
to those self-contaihed harpists that
Others may weary Of the sameness of
their tune.
Nor do they think that any one has
known aught of which they themselves
have been ignorant until now. They
discover things which have been public
property for centuries, even to facts Of
Greek and Roman history. If they 60
over to Paris for the first time they
discover Paris, and give their neigh
bors who have lived there for some
years the benefit of their experiences in
the cafes, and news of the conduct OF
the crowds IN the streets, aud the
queue made at the doors of the theatres.
If they take up new study they in
struct the expsrt-if they have adopted
a new fad they convert the hierophant
or It may be set forth as incontro.
vertible the superficial reasons why
such and such a fact should be accepted
to one who has goI down TO the roots
and rejected after profouDd examina'
ton. These intellectual egotlsts never
discriminate. Their 81" dominates
their judgment, and That they hear
and learn, IL it strikes their fancy,
they hold fast to, sure that their
great expansive "l' cannot be de-
ceived, and that they have no need of
caution. The ranks of the superstit-
iOus are recruited from those of tie
intellectual cyclists, and the people
who accept as gospel every folly All Dat
are those who are so sure of themselves
that they take no precaution against
To be sure among the
swallowers of quacking -hacks are the
absolutely simple and non-egotistical.
But their fault is folly, not presump-
tion-want of proper self-asSertion-
not too much arrogance.
The writer continues: People who
live in their own 81" are now prone TO
consider themselves sighted, now eager
to accept as supreme honor the COM
mones, courtesies and the smallest CIV
ilities. Everything unusual they take
as something done in their honor; and |
things which have no kind of reference
to themselves tney accept as their as
signed homage. This had an illustra-
tion of sort when Cato the younger |
took the demonstrations of respect, |
and greeting name by the AntiOchians |
as witnesses bore to his own deserving. |
Ii was nothing of the kind, The-wlat /
we should now call them-Deputatlon |
was waiting for Demetrius, Pompey s 1
and Cato went for nothing /
in their eyes. We say this was an illu- /
stration OF a sort, for Cato the younger /
was by no means an egotist, and the
was not unnatural. And, talk
ing OF ancient matters, it was Put
arch's father who first gave that most |
useful advice against egOtism in
his famous son always /
say I'VE went''-we saw''-''we did''-
even when his colleague should chance |
to be absent; and never to push for |
ward that obtrusiye ~ which some |
peo pie seem to think the note of adm;- /
ration of the universe.
81" has also becomea universal form /
of locution. Young girls who travel |
are prone to disdain the modesty of the /
collective pronoun "we" and from /
their conversation it might be CLEANED |
that they spend their lives in gong |
about the world alone and unattended.
1t is not a nice form of speech, but it |
belongs to the intense individualism Of |
the times. Self-assertion is the fashion,
but 1t viii pass away if we wait in pa
tlence, This selt-sustained worship of /
the 81" has received many a hard |
knock from poet and philosopher; yet il |
still survives. ''Sic volo, sic jubeo"
stands as kind of monumental warn
ing in the way of arrogant speech; and
II am Sir Oracle, and when l ope my
lips let no dog bark" is phrase which
we all know by heart, and of which
many of us have had occasion to make
The application.
Sir Philip Sidney says: "There is
nothing sooner overthrows weak head
than opinion of authority, like too
strong liquor in frall glass" So that.
as the ''world is nothing but trouble"
according to Montaigne, these opinions
Of authority that overthrow the weak
heads are not always those which ought
TO carry most weight. 81 hardly ever
yet SAW the man who did not prate too
much and speak too little" the old
French humoristic philosopher goes on
10 say; and his sarcasm touches, of all
men, those who worship their own
~" and believe in Themselves rather
than in science, by which We mean alb
solute knowledge.
4 Trademarks Promise.